Happy Saturday

Today, we decided, was the day we needed to break our months-long activity stalemate (brought on courtesy of my crappy-feeling first trimester) and get out and do something. Despite the fact that my cold is now so bad that I fell asleep last night crying in self-pity because I felt so bad.

Getting out and about seems like just what I needed. First we drove to the Falls Church Farmers' Market, one of the markets in the area that's open year-round. There was a dazzling array of seasonal winter produce, including turnips, potatoes, yams, wild mushrooms, and several different kinds of greens, as well as apples. We picked up some apples for the week ahead and sampled a few other things, and are planning to figure out something to make based around root vegetables for next week.

The market is very near a Metro stop, so we got on the train and took it into the city to go to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. It's been closed ever since we moved to town and has recently reopened after renovations.

Us in front of 1760's house that was moved into the museum

An immigrant woman breastfeeding

Historical instruments, including oboe and French horn

We had a nice time, and afterward walked down to the Eastern Market and picked up 8 heads of garlic so we could make 44-clove garlic soup in an effort to beat our colds. Since we made Silky Cauliflower Soup last night (which was delicious with the substitution of cheddar cheese for Parmesan), we've recreated both soups from Matt's original Silly About Soups post of just about a year ago. Both were made indescribably more delicious (if such a thing is possible) by the addition of some exceptionally heavy cream we got from a local farm recently--cream that's so heavy you literally can't pour it, you have to spoon it. It's like pure milk lard. And it's shockingly good in coffee, soups, and probably just about anything else. We're planning a sinfully rich cream of tomato soup later in the week--we can't wait!